Output, input and interaction are examined in this study for a native English speaking (NS) teacher and for native and non-native English speaking (NS, NNS) young children in two situations in the classroom, child organized and teacher organized. Video tapes and transcripts of fourteen samples of interactions in teacher organized situations and fourteen samples of naturally occurring interactions in child organized situations, each limited to the first consecutive one hundred utterances, were analyzed. Output was assessed in terms of verbal participation - utterances and words. Input and interaction were assessed both for discourse features (twelve negotiating devices) and in terms of the situational structure of the contexts that existed during the interactions - their distance from the speaker and the action was assessed with measures of exophoric and anaphoric reference (twenty-four reference items).
The results indicate: 1) that output or verbal participation varies for the teacher and the NS, NNS children with situation, 2) that discourse features, often used to assess input, vary in their use by the teacher and the children with the situational context, increase with verbal participation, and may not be useful measures of input, and 3) that the situational structure of the contexts that exist during teacher organized interactions and child organized interactions vary with situation - the distance of the language and the action from the speaker as well as the nature of the interaction. Individual variations amongst items, within and across groups are noted.
It is concluded that: 1) output, input and interaction vary with situation, 2) data analyses concerning input and interaction are more meaningful if they are related to the output occurring in different situations, and 3) L2 researchers will benefit from moving beyond the analysis of discourse features as the sole predictors of input during interaction to examine other aspects of the interaction situation.